US-backed Regime in Libya Still Unable to Form Government

Fighting continues between various rebel factions in eastern Libya. Over a dozen people have so far been reported killed., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Libya PM-elect withdraws government list after discontent

5:28pm EDT
By Ali Shuaib

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's prime minister-elect said on Thursday he had withdrawn his proposed government list, just a day after presenting it to the national congress for approval, after protesters stormed the assembly and politicians voiced discontent over his nominations.

Speaking on Libyan television, Mustafa Abushagur said he was ready to change some of his nominations in his proposed line-up which excluded the biggest party in congress, the liberal National Forces Alliance (NFA).

"I have asked the congress leader to withdraw my proposed government list and I will submit new nominations on Sunday," he said. "This new government should help build the state. Its members should have the right experience and be courageous."

Congress leader Mohammed Magarief had earlier said that the assembly did not approve of the proposed government line-up.

Abushagur's decision to withdraw his initial nominations is likely to be seen as a strategic retreat and as an attempt to keep Libya's still shaky efforts to put a stable political system in place on track.

"I thought the congress would discuss this list and give me their opinions," Abushagur said. "When I presented my list yesterday some congress members just left the hall ... It is the prime minister's right to pick the government."

Earlier on Thursday, protesters who believed their town was under-represented in the proposed government stormed the national assembly as it prepared to scrutinize the list.

Between 100 and 150 demonstrators from the western town of Zawiyah walked into the hall where congress meets, forcing the cancellation of a session meant to study the nominations. The session was postponed until later in the evening.

"After we heard the list, everyone in Zawiyah was angry. Some even began protesting in Zawiyah's main square last night," said Nuri Shambi, who travelled 50 km (30 miles) to the capital Tripoli to voice his anger.

"Abushagur said he would form a coalition government, that he would look at experience. Zawiyah proposed candidates for oil minister, but he's brought in someone who is not well known."

Abushagur's line-up included many unknown names, including the proposed oil minister, Mabrouk Issa Abu Harroura.

While Abushagur says he is politically "neutral", the line-up is said to have included several members of the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ibrahim al-Gharyani, head of the NFA in congress, said there were no candidates from his alliance, the biggest party in the chamber.

Congress spokesman Omar Hmaidan said several congress members had voiced dissatisfaction with the nominations.

"We need a political government. Many of these people are not known," congress member Mohammed Saleem said.

Another congress member echoed that, adding: "Those who are known to us have little experience."

The NFA's leader, wartime rebel Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, lost out narrowly to Abushagur in the congress vote for the next head of government on September 12.

Although the NFA is the biggest political grouping with 39 out of the 80 party seats in the assembly, another 120 seats are in the hands of independents.

The NFA had asked in vain for nine ministries and the inclusion of its program in the next government. NFA Spokesman Hamuda Siala said it would support Abushagur's cabinet "as long as it aims to serve Libya's national interest, improve security and boost development".

Abushagur's transitional government will take over from an interim administration appointed last November in which he was deputy prime minister.

He had picked three deputy prime ministers from the western mountain town of Zintan, from the south and from the east in an attempt to ensure broad geographical representation.

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Andrew Osborn)


Protesters storm Libyan parliament

Demonstrators from Zawiya angry that proposed cabinet contains no ministers from their city

Chris Stephen in Tripoli
The Guardian, Thursday 4 October 2012

Protesters stormed the chamber of Occupied Libya's parliament on Thursday, preventing MPs from taking their seats to vote on whether to approve a new cabinet.

The protest, involving 100 unarmed men from Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, comes amid growing signs of chaos and violence across the country.

The men said they objected to the failure to include among 29 cabinet nominees a minister from their city, which was one of the first to rise against Muammar Gaddafi's government in last year's counter-revolution.

They agreed to clear the chamber peacefully, but the chances of Libya's parliament agreeing a cabinet soon were dealt a further blow hours later when the prime minister, Mustafa Abushagur, announced that MPs had informally rejected 13 of his nominees.

The procedure to pick the cabinet of the first freely elected parliament in more than 40 years has already proved controversial because members from the National Forces Alliance, the largest party in congress, have been excluded. Eyebrows have been raised across the political spectrum because many of the nominees for the cabinet are unknown to most Libyans.

On Thursday night Reuters reported that Abushagur had appeared on Libyan television and said he had withdrawn his proposed government list.

"I have asked the congress leader to withdraw my proposed government list and I will submit new nominations on Sunday," he said. "This new government should help build the state. Its members should have the right experience and be courageous."

The delay leaves Libya still without firm government, nearly three months after the parliamentary elections and with violence breaking out in several flashpoint towns.

Forces of a pro-government militia alliance, the National Shield, clashed overnight with units in Bani Walid, a former pro-Gaddafi town south-east of Tripoli. It was surrounded by tanks and artillery after the group was told to hand over men accused of the killing of a counter-revolutionary from Misrata.

Further south there are reports that gold shops belonging to Misratans were set ablaze in the desert town of Sabha.

In Benghazi police and army units say they are facing regular guerrilla attacks by the Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia, which is blamed by many for last month's killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens.

A specially formed army unit, the National Mobile Force, has begun operations against suspected Ansar al-Sharia hideouts, but said its task was complicated because the militia was ejected from its base on 21 September by anti-militia protesters.

"When they were all in the base they were easier for our intelligence guys to watch," said a force spokesman, Colonel Khalid Alakeri. "Now they were dispersed."

Ismail Salabi, leader of one of Benghazi's remaining Islamist brigades, Rafallah al-Sahati, which has joined government forces, said Ansar al-Sharia continued to pose a guerrilla threat. "They have gone into the shadows," he said.

The chaos in government, combined with the jihadist attack that killed the US ambassador and three fellow officials, has brought international business to a halt. Visits by trade delegations have been scrapped and Benghazi, which is Libya's second city, is almost empty of foreigners.

Power cuts are common and Tripoli residents have taken to dumping their uncollected refuse in great mounds in the ruins of Gaddafi's former home at Bab al-Aziziya.